Tales from the Drop Zone: roles, risks and dramaturgical dilemmas

This paper critically revisits conventional understandings of ethnographic fieldwork roles, arguing that representations of the covert insider as heroic and adventurous are often idealistic and unrealistic. Drawing on one of the authors’ experiences of being both a covert and overt researcher in an ethnographic study of skydiving, we identify some of the dramaturgical dilemmas that can unexpectedly affect relations with participants throughout the research process. Our overall aim is to highlight how issues of trust, betrayal, exposure and vulnerability, together with the practical considerations of field research, combine to shape the researcher’s interactional strategies of identity work

Divergent mind-sets, convergent policies: Policing models against organized crime in Italy and in England within international frameworks

The fight against organized crime is a very fertile ground for policymaking at various levels. On one side, because of the perceived transnationality of the phenomenon, national states are inclined to develop harmonized responses within the European or international law frameworks. On the other side, national conceptualizations and manifestations of organized crime often make these harmonizations quite challenging. This paper shares the findings of a socio-legal investigation carried out in England and in Italy through interviews and document analysis, comparing the two national models against organized crime. The paper presents these two models ? the Italian Structure Model and the English Activity Model, which are very different in many ways ? in order to identify divergences and convergences of policies and practices. This comparative exercise not only improves our understanding of national approaches, beyond cultural, linguistic and legal boundaries, but also improves the dialogue towards concerted efforts at the international level. Nevertheless, the globalization of criminal markets and the internationalization of policies have influenced perceptions of organized crime and related policing tactics at national levels too. This paper will briefly look at international perspectives to assess to what extent divergent and convergent areas between the two models are also areas of interest and focus at the international level, in order to conclude with an enhanced understanding of both models before drawing conclusions

Transitions and transcendence of the self: stage fright and the paradox of shy performativity

This article explores the paradox of shy performativity, whereby people who identify as shy in everyday life can nevertheless give confident displays on stage. Professional performing artists’ accounts reveal that this is both enabled and complicated by transformations in consciousness concerning the Meadian social self. While taking on a fictional persona can provide liberating opportunities for the transcendent subject ‘I’, the critically self-doubting ‘Me’ reappears at certain moments, such as stage fright, transitions in and out of character, and disruptions of a scene’s dramatic frame. Managing the shifting boundaries between contrivance and reality creates ontological dangers, the brave pursuit of which presents a thrilling challenge for the shy performer. Symbolic Interactionist and dramaturgical theories are therefore applied alongside concepts of edgework and flow to analyse shy performance art as voluntary risk-taking action

Idealism, violence and censure

This chapter builds on Sumner’s (1990, 1997, 2015) research by drawing attention to the work of Erich Fromm ([1941] 1969) and Ernest Becker (1975). Whilst there are important differences between their approaches, both theorists directly address the unconscious desires that motivate people to engage in extreme violence and other forms of destructive behaviour. The main themes addressed by Fromm and Becker will be discussed in relation to Cottee and Hayward’s (2011) research on the existential attractions of engaging in terrorist acts. The chapter concludes by considering the different ideas put forward by Fromm and Becker concerning the possibility for living in a more open, tolerant and less destructive world